Managing Your Team, Managing Your Self, Remember the object of the exercise!

My fellow writer Carmel McConnell says in getting Ahead; Give a Damn: 'Happy, fulfilled, stretched but supported people generally achieve the most at work and get the most from life. They drain a lot of swamps and have a pretty good time doing it (strange though it may seem swamp drainage is a Very Enjoyable Occupation). However, many of us face a few alligators. . .thosesubversiveobstaclesthatgetinthe way of a productive, high achieving but low-stress kind of life. Some of them we make ourselves, some of them are placed there by other people. Some of them just are.'

And the object of the exercise, my friend, is what? We all have a different agenda. You may say, 'To make profits for the shareholders, but you're just trying to curry favor by giving an answer you think I want. I don't.

Remember that even when you are up to your arse in alligators the object of the exercise was to drain the swamp. There are many objectives, many swamp-draining exercises. You might see it as the next project, setting the next budget, getting through the next interview, week, or disciplinary interview. It might be long-term stuff, a career in general, etc. And the alligators who bite your bum could be colleagues, customers, clients, bosses, staff, family, you name it/them. But they do get in the way of draining the swamp.

This is a Rule about focusing so you don't get side-tracked by all the nonsense that goes on around you. Stay focused and keep the objective in your sights at all times whatever it may be.